“she became a palatal cancer patient in the prison but the political power didn’t give her right to be treated outside on time. she won her freedom, only after the public pressure and conscience that was formed, when it was too late. she said “i was given the freedom to die outside”. she left us with a revolutionary honor. güler wrote her name to the history with her eyes and the stars that she spread. the documentary is about the 121 days long tough struggle carried out to win her freedom of güler zere.”

Green anarchists and anarchists as a whole, were taken by government anti-terrorism units from their homes simultaneously on May 14 at 5 a.m. They were kept under police custody for 4 days. Nine fo them including vegan and vegetarians, were taken to prison where they remain today.

This is the first time an anti-terrorism operation was carried out by the police against animal rights and anarchist activists. The police claim that the arrested individuals were responsible for the May 1 attacks on banks and multi-national corperate stores in some areas in Istanbul. However, this is not and cannot be the case as these same individuals are against violence. In reality, the police were simply trying to silence and criminalize efforts like animal liberation, eco-defense and human liberation struggle.

Both the police and the media claim that “our” attacks on the banks were an act of violence. However the real act of violence was the unfounded arrests and detention of sixty people from around Turkey. Freedom is more important than some broken glasses. We endured four days of police questioning and now nine people are still in jail for their supposed crimes. However their only “crime” was being an anarchist. This is the real crime. Moreover this is a state terror. During questionings, we could not even say who were the alleged perpetrators actually were considering that we do not know ourselves. In recent years Turkish government increased the repression against dissent who are criticizing anti-democratic government and repressive rules. Police state is increasingly expanding and there are lots of political prisoners in Turkish prisons. It is now trying to terrorize our struggle against the system and all kinds of the domination types by creating an imaginary terrorist organisation linked to the legal libertarian foundations and some anarchist, animal liberationist and ecologist individuals. This is a total repression against anarchist, anti-authoritarian, animal liberation, ecodefense thoughts and activisties. Now all the activist who are jailed and who are waiting for next arrests worriedly, are expecting some solidarity and support from comrades and friends from all around the world.

For solidarity, we call on all anarchists, anti-authoritarians, animal rights and eco-defense activists to say “Freedom to anarchists and freedom to all Mayday prisoners!” in front of Turkish consulates and embassies throughout the world.

With solidarity and love…

PS:for increasing the motivation of the prisoned ones, you can also send solidarity letters to:

As known, there had been attack to some banks and companies which are around the Mecidiyeköy-Şişli by some anarchists who are within the Anarchist block on 1st of May 2012. We, as 9 of the 60 people who had been taken to the custody with the blames of the Police Department. We, as 9 anarchist prisoners whom were arrested by the decision of the 9th Criminal Court and had been put in to the Metris – Type T prison writing this letter.

Most of us got under custody by the Counter-Terror Squads on 14th of may, 5 a.m. in the morning, and some on the following day. Our computers, telephones, flash drives, books and many other personal stuffs’ got seized by the the police which were around 10-20 who came to our home. The claim that have been by the police department to us was the “damaging public property in the name of terror organization”. While, The individuals which have the pretty much different points of the anarchist ideas and also who have seen the first time each other while under surveillance were blaming for creating terrorist organisation, and some of them was forced to make them agree on being the leader of the terrorist organisation by the police during the interrogating. Even though the leadership is totally contradictory to the anarchist idea and thus is impossible that was the the claim by the police which is tragic-comic imprudence, and also with that claim which is “being member of the same terror organisation” makes things more comic. The people which are claimed by the police of being a member of the terrorist organisation had no arms or amuniton in their home. However, the books which can be find on the every bookstore -for example books of the writers like Kropotkin- had been claimed as an organisational documention on the interrogation by the police. The articles which they had read and the videos that they shared on social media were claimed as evidences to the court by the police.

The membership of the people to a legal association which is working on animal liberation, human rights and ecology issues also claimed as an evidence by the police. All the pyschological pressures used over the people who were under custody for 4 days and were not allowed to see their family members, also were not allowed to call anyone -even their lawyers. On of our LGBT friend had been attacked by “hate speeches”. All the people forced to agree the existence of the terrorist organisation and also forced to give the fake speeches about the other people. However two people who had been scared by the threats of 15-20 years of prison sentence beacuse of the membership on the terrorist organisation declared misstatements about the people that they never know anything about. By the pressure of the police, they have blamed some people which the police had no evidence over telephone, internet or any other communication with each other, as leader of the organisation, and “identified” them as attackers. Most of our friends got arrested just because of they have the close model and coloured bag, shoes, belt etc. as millions of people can have the same close type of with the people who are video taped on the attack. Of course it is not proved that an anarchist terror rganisation exists with that lacking and irrational evidences. Because of that we got blamed by damage to the public property. We want to clear out that, we, as anarchists who reject all the laws and authories and see all the states as murderers, we don’t care that if the state tells us we are terrorists or not. We don’t care that the state’s mass killing of tens of people in “Roboski”, killing 11 year old Uğur Kaymaz with 13 bullets and giving no punishment for that ones, than judging us. The state that had killed 34 people in 1977, did not even take any people to the custody. But had no problem for taking 60 people to the custody and arresting 9 of them for just 3-5 broken bank windows. Two of the arrested friends couldn’t enter the final exams on their university, there’s a possibility of that there can be an investigation by their universities and they can get a punishment of suspension or dismission. One of our friends is preparing for the general exam for the entrance of the university, it’s pretty clear that it’s not possible to study enough on the prison. One of friend who is studying M.A/M.S on university would not continue on the thesis of very own. We got news that 3 friend got sacked after they got arrested. Since we’re taken to the custody we’ve experienced the legal system which the states always tells what great it is, actually is no more than a pressure and normalizing tool and notions like justice, right is just on the theory. We want to be out now. But let us explain that neither we ask to anyone nor we beg to anyone. We know that we’re in prison just because of our policial ideas. Because of that, we are not regretfull for the anything we did or we did not. The reason is for writing that letter is just telling truths to the public to know and to help them to learn what is going on.

We know the purpose of the ones who arrested us, is not just fearing us for joining an action, they also like to turn us into the ones who are scared of to resist for their very own rights. But the thing that they do not know is that the prisons of their disgusting civilization will not be able to suppress our ideas and we feel stronger than ever before.

We see all the anarchists in the world as our fellows and sending our greetings, loves and solidarity call to all the insurrectionarists of the world who has freedom fire on their hearts and who are from Athens, Amed, Chiapas, Gazze, Toronto or Seattle… Let you know that you are not alone and there are people in that lands who is struggling too. We thank every one of them, for the solidarity and for the actions that support us. It’s not possible to define our feelings for to describe the local anarchists who are supporting and made actions for us, as the rest of the world, -these pages are very limited for our thank to them. We hug them all with our very dearly greetings. Let them know that we know that they are with us, and we are never feeling alone, even a moment. With wishes of us for many long days with insurrection and solidarity.

For the first time, Special Gendarmerie Sergeant Altan Sabsız talked about what happened during the “Return to Life” operation in the Bayrampaşa Prison in Istanbul on 19 January 2000.

The “Return to Life” operation was carried out eleven years ago in several prisons in order to solve the so-called “prison problem” in Turkey and end the death fast of prisoners who protested against their transfer to F type prisons with smaller cells. The operation started in the early morning on 19 December 2000 in 20 prisons simultaneously and involved thousands of convicts and ten thousands of security personnel. 32 people died in the operation, among them two soldiers. Hundreds of detainees and convicts were injured.

Sabsız now stated that the prisoners did not set themselves on fire as it was alleged. Instead, the doors of the prison cells were kept closed although the prisoners wanted to surrender.

Gendarmerie Sergeant Sabsız gave his statement before the 1st High Criminal Court of Van (south-eastern Turkey) on 5 July. He said, “Gas bombs including different, unknown substances were used; the people in the burning cells were not let to come out to surrender; nobody intervened against the fire; blankets soaked in combustible liquids were thrown on top of the burning prisoners”.

Sabsız said that throughout the past eleven years, nobody had asked for his statement, “So I am compelled to give my statement on this matter and to tell the truth I know”. His statement was forwarded to the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 13th High Criminal Court that handles the correspondent trial against 39 private soldiers.
“They threw different gas bombs”

Only in the Bayrampaşa Prison, twelve detainees and convicts died and 55 people were wounded. Five women burnt to death. In an official statement issued after the operation it had been announced that the prisoners set themselves on fire. However, Sabsız’s statement disproved the official statement and revealed that the prisoners were left to die. Moreover, his statement confuted the official announcement’s allegation that the “prisoners resisted with the force of arms”.

Sabsız made the following points in his statement:

* Members sent from the Ankara Gendarmerie Command Special Security Command (JKÖAK) and other personnel from I do not know where went in and intervened with gunfire. The detainees and convicts reacted by locking themselves in their cells.

* Wholes were being drilled into the prison walls and the ceilings to throw gas bombs. I do not know what was inside the bombs and they were not on our inventory. Even though I had been involved in the organization for a long time, automatic rifles that I had never seen before were used.

* When I was waiting on the corridor, inmates from a cell with women detainees and convicts banged on the door. They wanted to get out. They asked us to open the doors so they could come out. We did not intervene because we had no such order. After a short while, the cell was burning. The fire brigade team on the spot did not intervene either.
“They burnt them with blankets”

* When we entered the cell, we saw that the women were burnt like coal. It did not make sense to me that they burnt to that degree because the only items in the cell were a bed and a blanket and the burnt bodies were laying in a distance to the bed.

* Some of my ranked colleagues at JKÖAK that I met years later said that they told the prisoners, “We will save you. We are going to throw down wet blankets. Protect yourselves and wrap yourselves inside of them”. In fact, these blankets had been soaked in combustible liquids and they said that they worked like a fire accelerant.

“Burnt alive”

Birsen Kars was incarcerated at the women’s ward at the time of the operation. When she was taken to hospital afterwards she shouted, “They burnt alive!” She had said in her statement given earlier, “While they were opening fire on them, they continuously threw gas bombs through the perforated ceiling at the same time. Additionally, they used a black coloured gas that was a nerve gas. The inmates’ hair and skin came off and later the fire broke out”.

It was put forward in the trial that a “chemical weapon” had been used against the persons who burnt to death. This thesis was proven by claiming that “the clothes of the prisoners remained intact while their skin had peeled off from burning”.

Prime Minister of the time, Bülent Ecevit, had declared after the operation, “These terrorists have to finally understand that they cannot keep up with the government”.